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Micilín's Mucky Miles
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Micilin Muc wrote: »Another reason could be the weight loss in the past 3-4 weeks. I haven't weighed myself but the loss is clear enough to see
Probably around 70kgs at the moment. Still some too lose around the belly and upper body.
So I weighed myself last night - 75kgs :eek:! I haven't weighed this much in nearly 2 years, yet feel very fit and healthy! Hopefully after shifting a bit of weight the speed might kick in.0 -
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Micilin Muc wrote: »So I weighed myself last night - 75kgs :eek:! I haven't weighed this much in nearly 2 years, yet feel very fit and healthy! Hopefully after shifting a bit of weight the speed might kick in.
the weight thing is interesting.
I've kept an eye on my weight this cycle and haven't really dropped in weight (maybe a couple of lbs down) despite doing a lot more miles and been very conscious of eating healthily.
Despite this I get the usual comments about loosing weight from people who haven't seen me in a while (& clothes are too big on me etc)
I mentioned this to the physio on Monday and he said that (apart from the muscle/fat thing) not getting enough calories can actually cause the body to hold more water (natural defensive mechanism) and as a result masks any actual weight loss.
By increasing your calories to the appropriate amount (4000 cals in my case), you get the required amount and the body doesn't hold water and you actually loose weight over time.
I know that I hadn't been getting anywhere near 4000 calories/day. So its more snacking during the day to build it up in a managed way without feeling stuffed!! (fermented grapes might also help )
Makes some sense - but I haven't read anything about it or looked at the science behind it. I'm sure others on here would know more on this.0 -
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Wednesday
Cycling: 20km commuting
Yoga: 90-minute class. Four weeks of classes and I can now manage some of the poses that were too difficult at the start of the course.
Thursday
Cycling: 24km commuting
Running: 21km Medium-Long run with Statss. I charged up the headtorches and we went up a new route for both of us - Rathfarnham - Rockbrook - Kelly's Glen towards Larch Hill - back entrance to Tibradden - Dublin Mountains Way over to the side of Two Rock - down Kilmashogue and to Rathfarnham. Statss is a very decent climber, IMRA should watch out next year!
Friday
Cycling: 24km commuting.
A day of rest from running, just because I want to
I'll have to make changes to the schedule since I'm doing the marathon - so tomorrow morning I have a 20-miler. Going to make it a hilly one again.
I'm on holidays all next week, so I'm going to cram as much hill running in as possible, along with some yoga and long cycles. After next week I'll taper off a bit for the marathon.0 -
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Saturday
Running: 32km Long run.
Route: Rathfarnham - Kilmashogue - Three Rock - Fairy Castle - Wicklow Way to Prince William's Seat - Tibradden - Kelly's Glen - Rathfarnham.
Weather was great, a bit too hot though on the 10km climb from my house up to Fairy Castle. My Garmin is on holidays at the moment so I tracked the distance with my smartphone and kept it hidden in my bag, not having a clue about pace or heartrate Once I got to just below Prince William's Seat I took out the map to practice taking a bearing. I was too far from home to make it up to the top of the mountain unfortunately.
Once back on the main road in Glencullen, the climb back up to the Dublin Mountains Way was a real killer - I sped-walked most of it. The steep descent down Kelly's Glen was quite hard on my shins too. I was glad to get home. Time spent was 3:45, so it was great to get time on my feet, all while having fun on the trails.
I had a very sore left shin and right ankle after arriving home. Some gentle yoga, a nice long, hot bath and some RICE and my legs were back to 95% last night, no exaggeration :eek: I know I keep going on about this but I can't believe how quickly I recover from long runs this year!0 -
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Micilin Muc wrote: »Saturday
Running: 32km Long run.
Route: Rathfarnham - Kilmashogue - Three Rock - Fairy Castle - Wicklow Way to Prince William's Seat - Tibradden - Kelly's Glen - Rathfarnham.
Weather was great, a bit too hot though on the 10km climb from my house up to Fairy Castle. My Garmin is on holidays at the moment so I tracked the distance with my smartphone and kept it hidden in my bag, not having a clue about pace or heartrate Once I got to just below Prince William's Seat I took out the map to practice taking a bearing. I was too far from home to make it up to the top of the mountain unfortunately.
Once back on the main road in Glencullen, the climb back up to the Dublin Mountains Way was a real killer - I sped-walked most of it. The steep descent down Kelly's Glen was quite hard on my shins too. I was glad to get home. Time spent was 3:45, so it was great to get time on my feet, all while having fun on the trails.
I had a very sore left shin and right ankle after arriving home. Some gentle yoga, a nice long, hot bath and some RICE and my legs were back to 95% last night, no exaggeration :eek: I know I keep going on about this but I can't believe how quickly I recover from long runs this year!
That's a lovely run, especially on such a beautiful day. Sorry I couldn't make it, but I should be up for a few of these post DCM if you're interested.0 -
tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »I was going to post here that we should go for a run soon, but Im a long way from your mountain goat legs, and running up mountains
A post DCM beer will have to do, cool
I may like the mountains, but I'm not all that fast any more! Beer sounds good too You going to McGrattan's after DCM? You'll deserve a good few after your pacing :cool:That's a lovely run, especially on such a beautiful day. Sorry I couldn't make it, but I should be up for a few of these post DCM if you're interested.
Any weekends I'm in Dublin I'll be doing a long mountain run on the Saturday morning. Will keep in contact. You interested in doing AON this year? I may need to do a few recces on the navigation part of the route so a few of the runs may be further down into Wicklow.0 -
Monday
Running: 14km with 8km @ Lactate Threshold. A bag-free, headtorch-free, mountain-free run. Went up to Marlay Park at lunchtime and did a few laps. Felt good
The afternoon was spent babysitting and making chocolate rice krispie buns. I may have eaten 8 in a row, but I don't really know.
Yoga: 1.5 hours
Tuesday
Running: 20km Medium-Long run. Did 5km of it with a friend from a newly started Irish-speaking running club. Loads of interest at the moment, but we've only had two runs so far. Will have plenty of that when I move west anyway
Cycling: About 8km. I spent a good bit of the day doing maintenance on my bikes. Running well now.
Yoga: 1 hour.
Heading to Galway tomorrow and Kerry on Friday. I keep threatening to do a run in the Twelve Bens. I have a feeling Thursday might be the day, but I can't promise nothing. Still too daunting!0 -
Wednesday
Rest/travelling
Thursday
24km run/hike. My calves, they burn!
I finally had the guts and good weather for me to take to the Twelve Bens in Connemara. I have been thinking about going for a run in these mountains since January when I hiked Diamond Hill. Various factors have allowed me to chicken out since then – a lack of fitness, time and confidence in my navigation skills, along with unfavourable weather conditions. This week all the great forces came together and on Tuesday night I started getting myself ready for an epic day out on Thursday. Wednesday wasn’t a particularly good day preparation-wise so that night I was still trying to talk myself out of doing it.
Thursday morning my OH was like a military general as she was giving me a lift to the bus to Connemara on her way to work. A bowl of porridge and blueberries and I was already in the car to the bus stop. Waiting on the bus I stocked up on food and first aid supplies – enough for two or three people
On the bus going past Maam Cross I groaned as I caught my first glimpse of the mountains. I probably said “What am I doing?” out loud. At Connemara National Park in Letterfrack I left a bag of clean clothes and some food to be picked up again before the visitor centre closed at 5.30pm. I got talking to a local who seemed to know the hills like the back of his hand and answered all my questions about different parts of my planned route.
At 11.45am I started jogging the 5km along the main road from Letterfrack to Kylemore Abbey. Disaster nearly struck when I twisted my ankle on the snooker table-smooth tarmac road A few hundred metres after Kylemore I turned off the main road up a track towards a limekiln on the lower slopes of Maolán (the lesser of the two hills also known as Benbaun). The climb from the end of the track up the grassy slopes of Maolán was probaby one of the hardest of the day. 450+ metres of climbing over 1200 metres – obviously nearly impossible to keep my ankles off the ground to resemble anything like running, but still had my heart rate high enough for half marathon pace! I reached the top about 1hr15mins in and had my first proper rest. I had a look at the map and visually laid out my route down Maolán and up the next hill, Benbrack. 20 minutes of running and I was already at the summit of Benbrack. Lots of rock on this mountain but still good enough to run on.
The navigation from here was very important as there were cliffs everywhere around me except back towards Maolán. I picked out the obvious route from the map (not obvious from sight) and headed down towards a col called Mám na Scalpa. From Mám na Scalpa I had to hike uphill on the side of Muiceanacht, an extremely steep hill, mostly surrounded by cliffs. I found the mapped sheep track easily enough up to the next mám (Log an TairbhI think it's called) between Muiceanacht and my next hill, Benfree. The faint track made it slightly easier, but the sideways walk was still very hard on my ankles. Benfree is also covered in grass but the climb from that mám was probably the most dangerous of the day. I knew I’d have trouble descending this later on. I had a bit of food at the top of Benfree – half a sandwich, a Club Milk and some sugary jellies.
The route up to the highest peak in the range, and in Co. Galway – Benbaun – was quite obvious by sight as it was all on a 30 metre wide ridge. I jogged a good bit of this as there was another track here. Happy days. The summit of Benbaun was reached a short while later and I had a good rest here. The view from here is unbelievable. Steep mountains all around and a view of part of Lough Inagh – the lake by the side of the start of the marathon section of the Connemarathon. I was very wary of how remote and isolated I was (despite being able to log in to Facebook :eek:), so I took it handy from here on, not wanting to twist my ankle and having to call mountain rescue. Back at Benfree again and I had to slide on my ass most of the way down to the mám. Definitely the safest route of descending!
Back down the sheep track again to Mám na Scalpa to begin my descent down An Gleann Mór. As the name suggests this is a big glen and it took about 1.5 hours to hike. Navigation is easy enough as you can just follow the Polladirk River, but the ground conditions are tough - high grass and marshy. I headed up to the deer fence along one side of the glen, but there was no escaping the marshy ground.
Just below Eadargúil and Diamond Hill (Binn Ghuaire) with one hour left to collect my bag, I had a choice: keep on the flat marshy ground until I was beside the trails of the National Park, or head straight uphill towards the side of the Diamond. 'Sure what's one more mountain anyway' I said and about 30 minutes later found the heavenly trails of the National Park
. This was so much easier than the past 90 minutes of bog. A final rest at the top of the Diamond and then I legged it down the trails towards the Visitor Centre and the first humans I had seen in nearly 6 hours.
A great day and some seeds sown for an even more epic day next summer. Watch this space!
Garmin Link
Friday
Running: 8km recovery. In Dingle today for the Brandon Mountain Half tomorrow. Weather looks promising. Legs a little sore today, but should be OK by the morning.
Yoga: 30 minutes.0 -
Map of Thursday's run:
Photo below taken from Benbrack. Benbaun is the highest peak, Benfree just in front of it to the right. The profile of my climb up Benfree from the col to the right is well-defined here.
Below is Benbaun as seen from Benfree, the climb up to the summit of Benbaun clear enough too:
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The view northwards from Benbaun towards Belcarra-land was the best of the day. From right to left: Mweelrea (highest point in Connaught), Corraun Peninsula (leading to Achill) in the far distance, Slievemore and Minaun (Achill) in the far distance, Clare Island to the left in front, Croaghan to the left again (Achill), trig pillar/cairn, Inishturk, Benbrack.
And finally a view of most of my route, taken from Diamond hill. From left to right: Maolán, ridge leading up to Benbrack, Knockbrack in the foreground, Benfree and Benbaun to the right behind Benbrack, Muiceanacht to the right of that. An Gleann Mór is the big bog in the foreground.
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Saturday
Running: Brandon Mountain Half Marathon
The soreness from Thursday's adventure was worse on Saturday morning. I started the race at the back of the pack as I was feeling very sluggish, some of it from the extra kit in my backpack (3.5kg or so). I also had a very dodgy stomach which kept me up since 5am :mad:. Nevertheless I started to loosen up and by 5km in on flattish road I was nicely warmed up and had passed most of the field.
By the start of the trail up Mount Brandon (The Pilgrim's Path via the Stations of the Cross), I started passing more people out. Most of them were participants of the full marathon so I reckon they were just keeping something in reserve. I maintained a decent cadence on the steepest sections with bursts of running on less steep sections. Not one person passed me all the way up to the summit (at 952 metres it's the highest peak in Ireland outside of the Magillycuddy Reeks).
The descent down the steeper side of Mount Brandon was mental. 6-foot drops down from boulders on to other boulders :eek:! I got passed by about 5 people here as obviously these other people had a death wish. I got lost with a few other runners at one point and lost about 5 minutes looking for the trail. The trail levelled off a bit and I got into a good rhythm.
Reaching the finish line in Cloghane I was feeling better than I was when I started the race :cool:. If I had some road shoes left at the finish line to change into, I was very likely to have gone on to finish the marathon!
Final position: 7th:D (out of 17 or so half-marathon participants )
Time: 3:01:05.
Garmin Link
It was a strange race as it was mostly locals and ultra runners who were probably just out for their weekly marathon. I would do it again, but the 9-hour return to Dublin by public transport was not something I want to do ever again.0 -
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